Haircut - 30/08/2009

I can finally put on my rainboots!!!

K busy having fun entertaining herself!
See the colour on K's hair? Cool.....
K with Papa after haircut

We had wanted to go to the Kite Festival presented by Act 3 International at West Coast Park but got to give it a miss due to the wet weather. I was looking forward to it as K has never seen a kite and thought she'll be thrilled to see many beautiful kites soaring in the sky! Even if she doesn't enjoy the kites, hey, there is a sand pit there where she could have loads of fun! Oh well, maybe next year....

Anyhow, we decided to bring K for a haircut instead. Her fringe was pretty long and seemed to get in her way, so we really need to trim it. We always bring K to Ms Ye Ting of Junior League located at Vivocity. We had tried Junior League at Parkway Parade(much nearer to us!) but kept going back to Ms Ye Ting ever since K got her hair cut by her. I like the way she "shapes" K's hair. I am proud to say that K has never cry during haircut, not even when she was a baby and had to shave her head. ALL of the children, before K, cried. Luckily, she was not in the least influenced and enjoyed herself even, with her hands busy with the balloon, stickers, toys and TV!! After the hair was cut, K was given a splash of washable pink colour hairspray! So cute!!!

Homeschooling (Allie Alligator) - 26/08/2009

Some of my teaching materials
Printable book from the internet
Krissa hard at work (with a little nudging from Mummy!)
Krissa's completed works:
- Used pink crayon to colour the ribbon.
- Traced number 1.
- Ant craft using egg carton and pipe cleaners.
- Correctly identified picture of ant and pasted it on the worksheet.

- Exercises from Kumon's Let's Sticker & Paste.

Continuing with the phonetic sound of "A", we learnt about the ant!

Homeschooling (Allie Alligator) - 24/08/2009

My teaching materials:

- Introduction to the alligator, its life cycle and pictures of baby alligators.

- Worksheet with the pictures of the 4 topics which K will be learning.

- An egg showcasing a baby alligator when opened. - A DIY book with cliparts from the internet.
K working hard on her given tasks. She is truly a Daddy's girl; with each
piece of completed work, she would bring it to show Daddy.
K's completed works:
- Correctly identified alligator and pasted it on the worksheet.
- Alligator craft using toilet roll.
- Traced vertical lines to prepare her for numeral "1".
- Grouped stickers according to their colours and pasted them according
to their silhouette printed on the book.
- Picked out the right colour crayon and coloured the apple.
- Exercises using Kumon's Let's Sticker & Paste

For the longest time, flashcards, reading and art & craft was all I did with Krissa at home. Hence, I thought it is now necessary for me to do more for K and to feed her with as much information as I possibly could for I have witnessed and is ecstatic over her rate of learning. I truly believe that the brain of kids at this young age is like a sponge; they really can absorb all inputs so fast! Never mind if your child does not look/stare at the flashcard, just a glance will do! Take for example in K's weekly playschool, there is a short Zoophonics segment and for don't know what reason, K would always throw tantrums, lie on the floor and hide her face with her hands. No amount of coaxing would have her join in the singing and actions. I have never sing or do those actions in her presence too. However, one fine day while we were reading a book on elephant, she suddenly pronounce the "e" sound and did the action! I took a step further by starting with the first animal i.e. "Allie Alligator" and true enough, she was able to pronounce "a" sound and did the correct action too!

The tricky part about this whole homeschooling thing is I can't decide on the theme to present to Krissa. I am an advocate of Glenn Doman's teachings and after consulting another like-minded mummy, I have decided not to adopt the commonly used alphabet theme to introduce the alphabets to K at this stage for she maybe confused because all these while, K has been taught to recognise whole words instead of alphabets. Finally, I decided to use the animals of Zoophonics which she is familiar with to kickstart and from there, teach her another couple of things which starts with the same sound e.g. we started with alligator(Allie Alligator) today, then we will move on to apple, anteater and ant for the next 1 to 2 weeks.

In addition to the "topic-of-the-day", I have also integrated some exercises to build up her gross/fine motor skills and math (colour/shapes/sizes etc). I am really grateful to the presence of the internet and those kind souls out there who have generously uploaded their teaching materials for all to use. It sure makes my life alot easier:)

23/08/2009, Sunday (Part 2) - My First Cooking Lesson: Pizza! Pizza!

Grocery shopping
Master chef in action
The end product - Yummy!!!
See? I told you its yummy!!!

After grocery shopping, we got down to business. Krissa was able to follow my cue and instructions, the pizza turned out well and most importantly, the chef enjoyed her creation:) The next time, we'll bake yummy muffins!! Now, who says staying home is boring?!

23/08/2009, Sunday (Part 1) - Visit to the Library

Krissa on a kiddy ride before we enter the mall,

Krissa returning some books which I had borrowed &

Krissa in the library

We can't go anywhere far because Daddy's exams are around the corner, thus he cannot afford to be out for too long. We went for Dim Sum breakfast at one of our favourite restaurants, Yan Palace, before paying a short visit to Ah Ma(paternal grandma). Afterwhich, we went home and basically both Krissa & I spent almost half the lazy afternoon in bed!! Yes, we were that tired!! I had plans to make pizza with Krissa sometime back but often could not find the time to do so as we were out almost every weekend, thus I decided that today is the day. Daddy had wanted to stay home to continue with his studies while I take Krissa out to the library and do some grocery shopping for our pizza but Daddy, being the ever Mr Super Nice, decided to accompany us as it was drizzling:)

It was Krissa's 2nd trip to the library and apparently she did not understand or didn't want to understand "silence, please" because she would call out loudly when she saw something familiar e.g. dog, cat etc. Hahahha....thankfully the librarian did not chase us out. We managed to get some good books for K, in fact, books which I had wanted to buy. Now, I can test drive if K likes the books before investing.

Boom Bah! - 16/08/2009

Boom Bah! What is it? Make a guess! Hehehe...it is the title of a play by an Aussie theatre presented by Act 3 International.

We went to the play with Auntie Joycelyn and Trishelle jie-jie. We also met up with Junyi gor-gor and family outside the theatre as Auntie Mabel (mummy to Junyi) hoped that with a familiar presence i.e. K who is classmate to Junyi in Kids' Loft, it'll give him the extra courage to step into and stay throughout the entire play in the theatre. Apparently, Junyi went for a play once but was out of the theatre in 5 minutes. Luckily, Auntie Mabel's worries were unfounded because for one the lights in the theatre were not dimmed even when the play started and the actors soon capture the attention of all the children when they make music out of ordinary household stuff e.g. milk carton, spoon, cup etc. Apart from the actors, there was also an elaborate prop which housed a magic cupboard!

The climax of the play definitely has got to be the part where the actors allowed the children to try their hands on the various musical instruments e.g. violin, drum etc. K looked so cute when the violin was propped on her shoulder while one of the actors took her hand to play the violin with a bow! Am glad to say that K was well behaved throughout the show and all the children exited the theatre with a bright smile on their face (^-^)

Movie Time "Up" - 10/08/2009

Today's a public holiday as National Day i.e. 09/08/2009 falls on a Sunday. We brought Krissa to the cinema at AMK Hub to watch the animation show "Up". It was only K's 2nd visit to the cinema yet she seemed so seasoned! She only managed to stay still and silent for about 10 minutes before saying dog! dog! etc. She, at times, even laughed out loud although I really don't know if she understood. Luckily, there were also other children in the cinema who spoke as loudly and excitedly as K ;) I pity the couple next to us though because we had purchased "lovers' seat" for Daddy said K can sit in between us if she wants but K totally ruin the mood for romance for the couple...hahahha!!!